Inspirational Italy captain Sergio Parisse steered his side to a 53-17 win over Russia in their rugby World Cup Pool C match at Trafalgar Park on Tuesday. Parisse was instrumental in at least three of Italy's six first-half tries, scoring the first and setting up two others as the clinical Italians dominated the forward exchanges to notch 50 points for the first time in a World Cup match. “We are very happy to take the victory and the five points which was very important for us to try and qualify,” Parisse said. “We scored some tries and we take confidence in our attack but our defense must improve because the USA and Ireland will be very hard,” he added of their final two pool opponents. Winger Giulio Toniolatti and center Tommaso Benvenuti also scored two tries each, while scrumhalf Edoardo Gori, winger Luke McLean and Alessandro Zanni also crossed for the Italians. Italy coach Nick Mallett said his team got off to a good start but lost their way a bit. “I was very happy with the way we started the first half but then we got a bit loose. Russia ran hard at us, kept the ball and played some nice rugby,” he said. “We needed five points to make sure we go into the game against Ireland with a good shot at going through.” The Italian scrum, which constantly had the Russians on the back foot, was also rewarded when referee Waynes Barnes gave a penalty try after the Russians had collaped the scrum for the fourth time on their goal line. Flyhalf Riccardo Bocchino converted four of their first half tries, though he and Benvenuti missed five conversions between them. Italy hooker Fabio Ongaro was sin-binned for an illegal tackle on Igor Klyuchnikov when he went into the tackle without wrapping his arms around the Russian fullback.
